Ulysses/Lestrygonians

Lestrygonians is a food chapter. Personally, it's one of my favorites.

This episode takes place around 1 PM.

Chapter 8 Lestrygonians

Gilbert Scheme

Scene: The Lunch

Hour: 1 PM

Organ: Esophagus

Symbol: Constables

Art: Architecture

Technic: Peristaltic

Summary

In Lestroygonians, Bloom takes a walk - this time it's lunch, and he's coming from the newspaper office, covered in Chapter 7 Ulysses/Aeolus, where he wanted to get an ad for a client put into the paper (House of Keys). We'll see Bloom again in Chapter 9 Ulysses/Scylla and Charybdis, when he goes to the library to find material from an old newspaper for a client's ad.

Mr. Bloom is on a walk through Dublin looking for a place to eat on his way to the library. He meets and sees a few Dublin characters, including Mrs. Breen, who mishears Beaufoy as Purefoy, a slight mistake which will determine the entire course of the latter portion of the novel.

—Do you ever see anything of Mrs Beaufoy? Mr Bloom asked.

—Mina Purefoy? she said.

Philip Beaufoy I was thinking. Playgoers’ Club. Matcham often thinks of the masterstroke. Did I pull the chain? Yes. The last act.

—Yes.

—I just called to ask on the way in is she over it. She’s in the lying-in hospital in Holles street. Dr Horne got her in. She’s three days bad now.

Chapter 8

The Holles Street hospital is where Chapter 14 takes place, the scene where a group of men await Mina Purefoy's giving birth to a child at the hospital.

Mr. Bloom stumbles into one establishment (Burton's restaurant) that's overwhelming to his senses, and he continues to Davy Byrne's tavern, where he meets Nosey Flynn and a few more people who bet on horse races (incl. Lenahan, who he gave a horse tip to).

Mr Bloom, champing, standing, looked upon his sigh. Nosey numbskull. Will I tell him that horse Lenehan? He knows already. Better let him forget. Go and lose more. Fool and his money. Dewdrop coming down again.

Chapter 8

While in the restaurant Mr. Bloom ponders how people discovered foods for the first time (try it on the dog), when he leaves the restaurant he helps a blind stripling across the street (who is a piano tuner and will come back up in Chapter 10 Ulysses/Wandering Rocks and Chapter 11 Ulysses/Sirens) and launches into pondering about what it would like to be blind.

Mr Bloom walked behind the eyeless feet, a flatcut suit of herringbone tweed. Poor young fellow! How on earth did he know that van was there? Must have felt it. See things in their forehead perhaps: kind of sense of volume. Weight or size of it, something blacker than the dark. Wonder would he feel it if something was removed. Feel a gap. Queer idea of Dublin he must have, tapping his way round by the stones. Could he walk in a beeline if he hadn’t that cane? Bloodless pious face like a fellow going in to be a priest.

Look at all the things they can learn to do. Read with their fingers. Tune pianos.

Chapter 8

The conclusion of Chapter 8 is a bit curious - if you aren't paying close attention, it seems like Mr. Bloom suddenly becomes paranoid for no reason. Joyce only gives a one sentence clue (emphasis mine):

Mr Bloom came to Kildare street. First I must. Library.

Straw hat in sunlight. Tan shoes. Turnedup trousers. It is. It is.

His heart quopped softly. To the right. Museum. Goddesses. He swerved to the right.

Is it? Almost certain. Won’t look. Wine in my face. Why did I? Too heady. Yes, it is. The walk. Not see. Get on.

Making for the museum gate with long windy steps he lifted his eyes. Handsome building. Sir Thomas Deane designed. Not following me?

Didn’t see me perhaps. Light in his eyes.

The flutter of his breath came forth in short sighs. Quick. Cold statues: quiet there. Safe in a minute.

No. Didn’t see me. After two. Just at the gate.

My heart!

Chapter 8

Who wears a straw hat? tan shoes? turnedup trousers?

Blazes Boylan.

We have already been introduced to Boylan, who wrote a letter to Bloom's wife that Bloom delivered (and Molly hid under her pillow) in Chapter 4 Ulysses/Calpyso, and we'll see Boylan again in Chapter 10 Ulysses/Wandering Rocks as he prepares for his afternoon "visit" with "Mrs. Marion Bloom", and we see Bloom get trapped again by Boylan in Chapter 11 just as he's departing to (jingle jingle) make the (jingle jingle) Blooms' bed jingle jingle.

Odyssey Parallels

The Lestrygonians were a group of cannibals, whom Odysseus's crew had to defend themselves against. This chapter is, accordingly, filled with language of food - particularly, carnivorous language. Cannibalism takes many other forms in the chapter, down to the very phrases Joyce uses ("Coarse red: fun for drunkards: guffaw and smoke. Take off his white hat. His parboiled eyes.") A blind prophet also makes an appearance.

Knives (the scene in Burton's restaurant), blood ("Hot fresh blood they prescribe for descline. Blood always needed. Insidious. Lick it up, smoking hot, thick sugary. Famished ghosts." - an obvious and direct reference to the Hades scene in the Odyssey, where the blood is mixed with honey, and the ghosts that feed upon this blood can recognize Odysseys), meat ("Stink gripped his trembling breath: pungent meatjuicde, slop of greens. See the animals feed." "Potted meats. What is a home without Plumtree's potted meat? ...Dignam's potted meat. Cannibals would with lemon and rice.") and mixed sexual/carnivore language make other appearances int he chapter - it is full of Bloom's thought of Molly, nearly all of which are sexual in nature (Bloom's thoughts cover "Molly tasting it, her veil up," "Molly got over her [childbirth] lightly," his letter from earlier that morninng, "you poor little naughty boy," the silk stockings and petticoats on display at stores, "creaking beds," the "colour of [Molly's] new [purple] garters," etc.)

When Bloom goes into the Burton restaurant for lunch but leaves in disgust instead, it's like the culminating scene in The Odyssey where the Lestrygonians, steeped in the colors of their trade, are impinged upon inadvertently by Odysseus and his crew. They're all in the midst of a horrible feast, one that nearly causes Bloom (who shows signs of being somewhat OCD) to lose his appetite.

Later in the chapter: "tour round the body, changing biliary duct, spleen squirting liver, gastric juice coils of intestines like pipes."

Major Themes

Lestrygonians is an excellent chapter to jump to, because of the way it weaves together so many different things that make Ulysses groundbreaking: the parallels with the Odyssey are easy to understand, the action is understandable and easy to follow, and Bloom's internal stream of consciousness touches on virtually every important theme in the book. Additionally, this chapter gives us some useful information about Bloom (for example, that he is a Freemason).

Spilled food and bread crumbs make an appearance, as they did in Chapter 6 (the crumbs under Martin Cunningham's lap, in the carriage, the "black ship," on the way to the funeral, the "underworld"). This time, they're on Mrs. Breen's clothing (she is an old girlfriend of Bloom's and his preoccupation with her body and appearance draws his attention to the crumbs). The blind man crossing the street: "Stains on his coat. Slobbers his food, I suppose. Tastes all different for him. Have to be spoonfed first."

Like Chapter 4 Ulysses/Calypso and Chapter 5 Ulysses/Lotus Eaters, Bloom is on a walk, and preoccupied with his thoughts,which continually return to his wife Molly:

• Thoughts of Molly as mother
  • Rudy, Milly, bath time
  • Childbirth, nursing, rearing
• Thoughts of Molly as wife
  • Sexual nature, garters, fantasies
  • Other women, filling Molly's role

• Thoughts of a jealous/paranoid husband
  • Penrose - looking in on Molly while she was nursing
  • Blazes Boylan (brought up by Nosey Flynn, Nosey numskull, fitting name)

• Cyclical
  • Each leads into the other
  • His fantasy of particular night leads to memories of family leads to anxieties leads to escape through fantasy

Quotes

He suffered her to overtake him without surprise and thrust his dull grey beard towards her, his loose jaw wagging as he spoke earnestly.

Meshuggah. Off his chump.

Chapter 8

Wine soaked and softened rolled pith of bread mustard a moment mawkish cheese. Nice wine it is. Taste it better because I’m not thirsty. Bath of course does that. Just a bite or two. Then about six o’clock I can. Six. Six. Time will be gone then. She...

Mild fire of wine kindled his veins. I wanted that badly. Felt so off colour. His eyes unhungrily saw shelves of tins: sardines, gaudy lobsters’ claws. All the odd things people pick up for food. Out of shells, periwinkles with a pin, off trees, snails out of the ground the French eat, out of the sea with bait on a hook. Silly fish learn nothing in a thousand years. If you didn’t know risky putting anything into your mouth. Poisonous berries. Johnny Magories. Roundness you think good. Gaudy colour warns you off. One fellow told another and so on. Try it on the dog first. Led on by the smell or the look. Tempting fruit. Ice cones. Cream. Instinct. Orangegroves for instance. Need artificial irrigation. Bleibtreustrasse. Yes but what about oysters. Unsightly like a clot of phlegm. Filthy shells. Devil to open them too. Who found them out? Garbage, sewage they feed on. Fizz and Red bank oysters. Effect on the sexual. Aphrodis. He was in the Red Bank this morning. Was he oysters old fish at table perhaps he young flesh in bed no June has no ar no oysters. But there are people like things high. Tainted game. Jugged hare. First catch your hare. Chinese eating eggs fifty years old, blue and green again. Dinner of thirty courses. Each dish harmless might mix inside. Idea for a poison mystery. That archduke Leopold was it no yes or was it Otto one of those Habsburgs? Or who was it used to eat the scruff off his own head? Cheapest lunch in town. Of course aristocrats, then the others copy to be in the fashion. Milly too rock oil and flour. Raw pastry I like myself. Half the catch of oysters they throw back in the sea to keep up the price. Cheap no-one would buy. Caviare. Do the grand. Hock in green glasses. Swell blowout. Lady this. Powdered bosom pearls. The élite. Crème de la crème. They want special dishes to pretend they’re. Hermit with a platter of pulse keep down the stings of the flesh. Know me come eat with me. Royal sturgeon high sheriff, Coffey, the butcher, right to venisons of the forest from his ex. Send him back the half of a cow. Spread I saw down in the Master of the Rolls’ kitchen area. Whitehatted chef like a rabbi. Combustible duck. Curly cabbage à la duchesse de Parme. Just as well to write it on the bill of fare so you can know what you’ve eaten. Too many drugs spoil the broth. I know it myself. Dosing it with Edwards’ desiccated soup. Geese stuffed silly for them. Lobsters boiled alive. Do ptake some ptarmigan. Wouldn’t mind being a waiter in a swell hotel. Tips, evening dress, halfnaked ladies. May I tempt you to a little more filleted lemon sole, miss Dubedat? Yes, do bedad. And she did bedad. Huguenot name I expect that. A miss Dubedat lived in Killiney, I remember. Du de la is French. Still it’s the same fish perhaps old Micky Hanlon of Moore street ripped the guts out of making money hand over fist finger in fishes’ gills can’t write his name on a cheque think he was painting the landscape with his mouth twisted. Moooikill A Aitcha Ha ignorant as a kish of brogues, worth fifty thousand pounds.

Stuck on the pane two flies buzzed, stuck.

Chapter 8